Is there a way to work out all the required dependencies but without doing "./configure" - C

Question

For those who have compiled from source knows how much of a pain it is to run "./configure" only to find that X library or missing, worst yet it spits out a silly line saying a cryptic lib file is missing, which you then have to go to a web browser type in the missing file cross you fingers that Google can find the answer for you...

I find that very repetitive, so my question is:

Is there a way to work out all the required dependencies but without doing "./configure"

Answer 1

Read the README* or INSTALL* files in the source distribution, if there are any, or look for any documentation on the website where you downloaded it from. If the package is well documented, dependencies will usually be listed somewhere.

Answer 2

Given that there's no mention of a specific pkg has been mentioned, I assume this is a generic "how to avoid using configure" question. From a source tarball, no there is no automated way to work the dependencies out. That's what configure is for (you can always read the Makefiles and autoconf files and understand the dependencies manually, but then you'll miss configure very quickly). To avoid it, you need use something other the straight tarball, which has already worked out the dependencies.

For example you can switch to building source rpms (or debs, dependending on your system). Or you can use a system such as Gentoo which is really good at working out the dependencies for you. But all of these require the pkg you're interested in to be available in their format, so they won't work for tarballs that you download from the source provider.